Iran’s foreign ministry has slammed a Canadian court’s decision to uphold a US court ruling against the Islamic Republic, calling it a breach of international law.
In a statement on Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi dismissed a Canadian court’s decision to recognize the anti-Iran verdicts issued in absentia by US courts.
He rejected the move as being contrary to the common international legal procedure for such cases.
“Basically, the issuance of court rulings against a foreign government runs counter to the principle of equality of states and violates their immunity as stipulated in international law,” Qassemi said, stressing that Iran reserves the right to protest and pursue the court ruling.
“Regardless of the division of government branches in Canada, the Ottawa government will be directly responsible for any possible material or spiritual loss [incurred by Iran] as a result of such moves by different branches of the Canadian government,” he noted, reiterating that the court ruling is in contravention to the international law.
Ontario’s Court of Appeal upheld a previous ruling that requires the Islamic Republic to pay around $1.7 billion in damages to “American victims of terrorism.”
The Canadian court rejected Iran’s request to reconsider the ruling on Monday night, arguing that doing so would amount to a breach of Canada’s Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act (JVTA).
The accusation came despite Iran’s firm response to similar cases in the past, where various American and European courts had taken punitive measures against Tehran over unproven claims of complicity in terror.
The new case was brought by families of Americans citizens who had been killed in a series of attacks between 1980s and 2002, mostly blamed on Palestinian and Lebanese resistance movements Hamas and Hezbollah.
The families claimed that the Iranian government supported the two organizations and was therefore responsible for their actions.
